Northern Burlington boys' basketball comes up just short against Willingboro

COLUMBUS — The Northern Burlington High School boys’ basketball team received its first sign that it was equipped to play with almost anybody when, back on Jan. 11, the Greyhounds defeated Willingboro for the first time since 2002 and just the second time in four decades.

“Beating a team like that, knowing that it’s been a while since any team in our school had beat them, is a momentum-changer for me,” Northern Burlington’s Stephon Gadiare said of the previous meeting with the Chimeras. “This year’s my last year, so beating teams that previous Northern teams haven’t beaten is big.”

So with a five-game stretch ahead of the Greyhounds before they likely open up the NJSIAA Group III Central tournament as the No. 3 seed against No. 14 Jackson Liberty, Gene Darling’s club was hopeful it could pull off the near-unprecedented sweep of Willingboro.

Darling’s club came close, but a three-minute stretch late in the fourth quarter proved to be the difference as the Chimera’s ratcheted up the pressure and rode that to a much-less-comfortable-than-it-looked 67-57 win last night at Northern Burlington.

“We needed good possessions and not to settle for jump shots,” Darling said. “We needed to work the ball inside and try not to turn the ball over. On the defensive end, we got a little relaxed.

“They’d just have the single down screen, and we weren’t fighting through screens any more.”

Gadiare led all scorers with 24 points — the sixth time he’s gone for 20-or-more this season — to go along with three steals.

The senior guard stole a pass and went the other way for a one-handed slam early in the third quarter, and Marcus Brown followed with a field goal as the Greyhounds opened up a 34-25 lead and looked to have the momentum firmly in their favor.

Willingboro, however, responded with a 13-3 run, keyed by a pair of wide-open 3-pointers, to take a 38-36 lead.

”They got a couple of open threes that they hit and it shifted the momentum there,” Darling said.

Brown converted a running one-hander in the lane and converted the back-end of a trip to the foul line to put Northern Burlington back on top, 39-38, but that would be the last lead the Greyhounds would hold.

The Greyhounds pulled within a possession one final time, 46-44, after Marshe Terry hit a pair of free-throw attempts, but Willingboro closed out the contest with a 21-13 run.

“I think we needed to swing the ball a little bit more,” Gadiare said of the offense’s struggles down the stretch. “When we’re down, everyone’s trying to do what they can do to help us get back in the game, but I think the biggest thing was not making the extra pass.”

Joey Montalvo added 10 points and four assists, and Brown finished with 10 points and seven rebounds for Northern Burlington.